The Foundation of the Knowledge of Usul

An English translation of al-Usul min 'Ilm al-Usul, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymin's introduction to the principles by which rulings are derived. The Shaykh's own framing is that the two cannot be had separately: it is not possible for one with understanding of the religion to be without usul al-fiqh, nor for one who knows usul al-fiqh to do without fiqh, if he wants understanding of the religion at all. The text works through the sources, the commands and the prohibitions, the general and the specific, and the abrogating and the abrogated, in the compact form a primer takes so that it can be memorised first and explained by a teacher afterwards. This is the first book of the Usul Series, 152 pages, translated by S. Nawaz.